The owner of the water tower, Dario Zulich, filed a vandalism complaint with police.

On Thursday, Zulich had a crew paint over it.

He says he wanted the graffiti covered over before the holiday season, calling it his 'gift to the city'.

Zulich says he has big plans for the water tower next year.

"I want to light it up with LED lights and make it change colours not unlike the CN tower in Toronto," he said.

"For now though, of course I'm very proud of Sudbury so I'm going to repaint the word 'Sudbury', but it could happen a number of ways. Downtown there's all kinds of paintings on buildings which are so beautiful, that I'm open to all kinds of suggestions."

Zulich says an access ladder has been removed from below the water tower, so he doesn't expect any more vandalism to the landmark.